[rohrpost] Konf: Pioneering Software in the 1960s in Germany, The Netherlands, and Belgium - Amsterdam 11/06

[Annett Zinsmeister]

Konf: Pioneering Software in the 1960s in Germany, The
         Netherlands, and Belgium - Amsterdam 11/06
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Software, today, is the ubiquitous support of everyday practice. The
early beginnings of software, however, are half a century old. From the
coding of the early machines in the 1950s gradually rose the writing of
software as an autonomous practice. By 1960 the main areas of research
and industrial innovation were operating systems, programming languages
and construction of compilers. In the following years the software field
developed its own tools, techniques and methodologies. The foundation of
software houses signified the emergence of software as an economic
activity. The development of software showed its growing pains, from
late deliveries, to not meeting specifications, and to straightforward
accidents. By the end of the 1960s some perceived the field as being in
a crisis, others saw new challenges. The famous Garmisch-Partenkirchen
Conference in 1968 marked the self-conscious start of a new discipline
called software engineering.

European countries followed their own paths in these early developments
of software. Their academics tended to choose the niche of theoretical
research, symbolized by abstract reflection on the design of languages.
Simultanuously university research teams filled the gap of the absent
software departments in the European computer industries, delivering
compilers and contributing to operating systems. Germany, The
Netherlands and Belgium shared this paradox characteristic of the
pioneering age of software.


Topics: 

Designing programming languages
Construction of compilers and operating systems
The rise of the software branch: software-houses and application
software 
Software tools, techniques and methodologies: towards software
engineering in industry and academy

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Thursday, November 2nd,
     
15:30   Paul Klint (CWI Amsterdam), opening remarks on the history of
software engineering

Designing Languages

15:50   Hartmut Petzold (München), Nikolaus Joachim Lehmann from Dresden
and the international ALGOL project

16:30   Gerard Alberts (Amsterdam), Van Wijngaarden and ALGOL 68

17:30    Albert Endres (Sindelfingen), Early language design and
compiler development at IBM Europe; a personal retrospect

18:10    discussion opened by Helena Durnova (Brno), comments on
languages and the ALGOL effort


Friday, November 3rd

Morning, 9:00 – 13:00

Compilers, and operating systems in academic-industrial cooperation

09:00 Hans Langmaack (Kiel), Compiler construction as an academic
enterprise  in the ALCOR-Group

09:40 Frans Kruseman Aretz (Eindhoven), Progress in ALGOL 60
implementation: two successive MC-systems compared

10:20 discussion opened by Gerhard Goos (Karlsruhe), comments on
compiler construction

11:10 Hans-R Wiehle (München), Operating Systems at Telefunken

11:50 Adrienne van den Bogaard (Delft), Dijkstra and the THE operating
system

12:30 discussion opened by Klaus-Peter Löhr (Berlin), comments on
operating systems

 Afternoon, 15:00 – 19:00

The rise of the software industry

15:00 Jan Mol (Amsterdam), Volmac

15:40 Timo Leimbach (München), The creation and rise of the German
software industry: some remarks and case studies

17:00  Jacques Loeckx (Köln), Computer design and software development
in Belgium before 1970; a personal retrospect

17:40  Sandra Mols (Manchester), The beginnings of the Belgian software
industry 

18:30  discussion

Saturday, November 4th

Morning, 9:00 – 13:00
  
Software tools, techniques and methodologies: towards software
engineering in industry and academy

09:00   Jan Berghuis (Bennekom), Project management, systems management

09:40  Willem van der Poel (Delft), The Zebraclub

10:20   discussion

11:00    Maurice Verhelst (Leuven), Decision tables, past and present

11:40     Hans-Dieter Hellige (Bremen), Software Engineering approaches
before the notion

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Organizers: Gerard Alberts (UvA  Amsterdam), Paul Klint (CWI,
Amsterdam), Wilfried Brauer (TU München), Arjan van Dijk (NGI), Ulf
Hashagen (MZWTG/Deutsches Museum), Hans Dieter Hellige (Universität
Bremen), Jacques VandenBulcke (SAI/Universiteit Leuven), John
Impagliazzo (IFIP)

Supporting Organizations:
GI, NGI, SAI, IFIP Working Group 9.7 „History of Computing“; CWI,
Deutsches Museum/MZWTG, TU München

Financial support by CWI, NWO-EW, and Ernst-Denert-Stiftung für
Software-Engineering, Amsterdam
02.11.2006-04.11.2006, CWI: Kruislaan 413, Amsterdam
Deadline: 04.11.2006


Ms  van Ojik

dept CBI/COM, CWI

+31 20 592 4009

Wilmy.van.Ojik AT cwi.nl

Homepage <http://www.cwi.nl/events/2006/pioneer/>